The present invention is in the field of digital radiography. The invention more specifically relates to processing and display of radiographic images on a work station.
In the field of digital radiography a wide variety of image acquisition techniques have been developed such as computerised tomography, nuclear magnetic resonance, ultrasound, detection of a radiation image by means of a CCD sensor or a video camera, radiographic film scanning etc.
In still another technique a radiation image, for example an image of x-rays transmitted by an object, is stored in a screen comprising a photostimulable phosphor such as one of the phosphors described in European patent publication 503 702 published on Sep. 9, 1992 and U.S. Ser. No. 07/842,603 filed Feb. 27, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,661 The technique for reading out the stored radiation image consists of scanning the screen with stimulating radiation, such as laser light of the appropriate wavelength, detecting the light emitted upon stimulation and converting the emitted light into an electric representation for example by means of a photomultiplier and digitizing the signal.
The digital images obtained by one of the acquisition techniques described hereinbefore can be transmitted to a graphic workstation for off-line processing or reprocessing and display on a CRT screen or the like.
The number of pixels in the digital radiographic image is commonly far greater than the!number of pixels that can be displayed on the display screen of the workstation.
For example, in case of a digital radiographic image obtained by read out of an exposed photostimulable phosphor screen, the number of pixels in the digital image representation typically amounts to 2000 times 2500 pixels or even more whereas commercially available display screens, for example CRT screens, can only display about 1000 by 1200 pixels. The number of pixels in the digital image representation is only indicative since the number of pixels in the pixel matrix may depend for example on the dimensions of the photostimulable phosphor screen and may for some dimensions exceed this number.
In any case, if a radiographic image is represented by a greater number of pixels than the number of pixels that can be displayed on the display device, the operator has to decide either to display only part of an image at a high resolution or to extract a low resolution representation of the entire image and to display said low resolution image representation.
The latter method is satisfactory in case an operator or radiologist only requires a first impression of the general outlook or content of an image and is not interested in every last detail.
However, when an image evaluation is to be performed on a displayed image, the operator will not be satisfied with a low resolution image representation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of displaying a radiographic image or at least part thereof on a display screen that can only display a smaller number of pixels than the number of pixels representing the radiographic image.
It is a further object or the invention to provide such a method that is fast and computationally inexpensive.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide such a method for application on a digital representation of a radiographic image obtained by reading an image stored in a photo stimulable phosphor screen.
Still further objects will become apparent from the description hereinafter.
The objects of the present invention are achieved by a method of displaying on a display device a radiographic image represented by a digital signal representation comprising the steps of
1)xe2x80x94transforming said image into a pyramidal multiresolution representation which represents localised image detail at multiple scales,
2)xe2x80x94storing said multiresolution representation into a memory,
3)xe2x80x94defining an area of interest part of said radiographic image,
4)xe2x80x94retrieving the multiresolution representation at least of said area of interest from said memory,
5)xe2x80x94reconstructing said image area by applying the inverse of said transform to the retrieved multiresolution representation,
6)xe2x80x94displaying said reconstructed image area.
The method of the present invention provides that in case an image cannot be displayed in its entirety at full resolution on a display device because the resolution of the display device is not adequate, that in this case at least part of the image can be displayed at the resolution of the original image representation or even at higher resolution.
In the statement of the invention and the description hereinbelow interactions performed on an image or on a so-called detail image are to be interpreted as referring to interactions performed on the digital signal representation thereof.
In the context of the present application reference is often made to the monitor screen, being the area serving for visual display of an image.
It is known to the man skilled in the art that in case one of the nowadays frequently applied graphical user interfaces is used, the area on the screen available for image display is not the entire screen area because part of this screen area is occupied by icons, menus""s and other indications that are used in selecting commands, operational modes etc.
So, when in this application reference is made to the monitor screen, this is meant to be interpreted as referring to the area of the monitor screen that is available for image display unless otherwise specified.
The first step of the method of the present invention is the decomposition of an image into a multiresolution pyramidal representation.
This kind of decomposition has been described extensively in our copending European application 91202079.9 filed on Aug. 14, 1991 and in U.S. Ser. No. 07/924,095 filed Aug. 5, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,914
In one embodiment the multi resolution representation is obtained as a sequence of detail images at multiple resolution levels and a residual image at a resolution level lower than the minimum of said multiple resolution levels.
The detail image at the finest resolution level is preferably obtained as the pixel wise difference between the original image and an image obtained by low pass filtering the original image. Successive coarser resolution level detail images are obtained by taking the pixelwise difference between two low pass filtered versions of the original image, the second having a smaller bandwidth than the former.
So, the detail images at successive coarser resolution levels are obtained as a result of K iterations of the following steps:
a) computing an approximation image at a next coarser level by applying a low pass filter to the approximation image corresponding to the current iteration, and subsampling the result in proportion to the reduction in spatial frequency bandwidth, using the original image as input to said low pass filter in the course of the first iteration;
b) computing a detail image as the pixelwise difference between the approximation image corresponding to the current iteration and the approximation image at a next coarser resolution level computed according to the method sub 4a; both images being brought into register by proper interpolation of the latter image,
The residual image is equal to the approximation image produced by the last iteration.
A preferred subsampling factor is 2, and preferably said low-pass filter has preferably an impulse response which approximates a two-dimensional gaussian distribution.
After decomposition the detail images and the residual image are stored in a storage device so that they can be used repeatedly without the need of repeating the image decomposition which is a processing step that demands a lot of computational effort.
After image decomposition the present invention comprises the definition of an area of interest part of the radiographic image.
An area of interest part of a radiographic image can be defined in several ways. It can be defined automatically for example as an area with a predefined location and with predefined dimensions within the radiographic image. The location of this area can be indicated to the operator by displaying a minimized image onto which the predefined location is indicated.
Alternatively the area can be defined under visual control for example with the aid of an overview image, being a low resolution image that gives an indication of the general content of an image but that does not show every detail. The overview image can be used as a tool for defining an area of interest into which the radiologist wants to xe2x80x9czoomxe2x80x9d, i.e. which area the radiologist wants to be able to inspect in great detail.
This overview image can be obtained by retrieving said multiresolution representation up to a predetermined level from said memory and by applying a reconstruction algorithm, being the inverse of the decomposition transform, to the retrieved multiresolution representation.
The predetermined resolution level up to which detail images are retrieved is such that after processing and reconstruction an overview image results with a number of pixels that can be displayed on the display device.
A such like procedure has also been described in our copending European application entitledxe2x80x9cMethod of displaying a radiographic imagexe2x80x9d that was filed on the even day.
The recombination step is described extensively in the already mentioned European application 91202079.9 filed Aug. 14, 1991 and U.S. Ser. No. 07/924,095.
For a multiresolution representation comprising detail images at multiple resolution levels and a residual image the inverse transformation is such that when applied to all unmodified detail images and the residual image into which the original image has been decomposed, the original image or a close approximation thereof would result.
More specifically a reconstructed overview image is computed by iterating K times the following procedure starting from the coarsest detail image and the residual image:
computing the approximation image at the current resolution level by pixelwise adding the modified detail image at the same resolution level to the approximation image at the coarser resolution level corresponding to the previous iteration, both images being brought into register by proper interpolation of the latter image, using the residual image instead of the coarser approximation image in the course of the first iteration.
As has already been mentioned, in respect of the overview image and its reconstruction only detail images up to a predetermined resolution level and the residual image are taken into account.
It is possible to subject the multiresolution representation that is retrieved from the memory to image processing before application of the reconstruction algorithm.
Image processing is performed by modifying pixel values of the retrieved multiresolution represetation according to a non-identity function of a neighbourhood of retrieved values, said neighbourhood consisting of values of the same resolution level which correspond to a spatially coherent region of pixels in said image.
The reconstruction algorithm then renders a processed overview image when applied to the retrieved and modified multiresolution representation.
This procedure is advantageous in that the operator gets a first impression of the result of an applied processing mode.
The processing that can be performed on the retrieved detail images may comprise any kind of image processing such as
modification of detail contrast by modification of the values of detail images according to at least one non-linear monotonically increasing odd conversion function with a slope that gradually decreases with increasing argument values as has been described in our European application 91202079.9 filed Jul. 7, 1992 and U.S. Ser. No. 07/924,095.
noise reduction by attenuating pyramid values taking into account the locally estimated image Content, a method described extensively in our copending European application 92201802.3 filed Jun. 19, 1992.
edge enhancement by increasing values of the finer resolution levels in the pyramid relative to the intermediate resolution levels,
suppressing gradually evolving;signal components across the image by decreasing the values of the coarser resolution levels relative to the intermediate levels,
or any combination of these processing operations,
different amounts of processing can be obtained by varying processing parameters.
The reconstructed overview image is then displayed. The definition of the image area of interest on the overview image can be performed by the radiologist or the operator according to several methods that are very well known to the man skilled in the art.
The area can for example be defined by delineating under visual control the contour of an area Ion the overview image displayed on the screen (for example by displaying a light marking on the screen the movement whereof is synchronised with the movement of a coordinate pen). The area is then defined as comprising pixels having coordinates within said contour.
Alternatives may be envisioned. For example corner points may be indicated and a rectangle may be defined on the basis of said corner points or a circular are a may be defined by indicating a center point and a radius. Thereupon the area is defined as comprising all image points the coordinates whereof are comprised within said rectangle or within said circle.
Still other alternatives may be envisioned and are described in our European published application 523 771 and in U.S. Ser. No. 07/907,125.
Once the area of interest is defined, the image of this area is reconstructed and displayed.
This can be performed in several ways described hereinafter.
In a first method the entire radiographic image is reconstructed by applying a reconstruction algorithm as described above to the total pyramidal multiresolution representation of the radiographic image. Next, the coordinates of the pixels in the reconstructed image are determined that correspond with the coordinates of the defined image area (for example defined on the displayed overview image) and the pixels (of the reconstructed image) having these coordinates are displayed. This method is rather slow and involves a lot of computation time since the entire image is to be reconstructed.
A more advantageous method comprises the steps of selecting in each of the components of the pyramidal multiresolution representation of the radiographic image the pixels that contribute to the image representation of the defined area and by reconstructing the image representing said area by applying a reconstruction algorithm as described hereinbefore to these selected pixels.
Still another method starts from the already reconstructed overview image (which is a reconstruction up to a predetermined resolution level) and completes the reconstruction process limited to the pixels out of the other components of the multiresolution representation (at higher resoution levels) within the defined image area.
The last two methods are faster than the first described alternative since the entire image needs not to be processed and reconstructed.
In still an alternative method techniques such as interpolation, pixel replica etc may be applied to enhance image resolution.
It is possible to apply image processing techniques such as described higher to the pyramidal multiresolution representation of the defined image area before reconstruction.
Finally reconstructed area of interest is displayed.
Display can be implemented according to two different modes.
A first method is known in the art as xe2x80x9cthe magnifying glass display methodxe2x80x9d since the method is an imitation of the effect obtained by an inspection of a conventional radiographic film through a magnifying glass. Only part of the display screen is filled with the display of a part of the processed image.
A second method is referred to as the xe2x80x9croamxe2x80x9d method. Part of the total image corresponding with the dimensions of the area on the monitor screen available for image display, is displayed so that the entire monitor screen is filled.
Selection of one of these display modes is performed according to the taste of the radiologist.